Booklovers in Paris… if you are looking for good books in English and you don’t know where to go, Mômji gives you here the addresses of the most famous bookshops in Paris.
The original bookstore: Shakespeare and Co: a charming American bookshop
Address: 37 rue de la Bûcherie, Paris.
Closest metro: RER B + C Saint Michel. It is very close to Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Open from 10am to 11pm from Monday to Sunday.
This bookshop is a must when you are visiting Paris whether you are actually looking for a book or looking for a very peculiar experience. It’s a place full of history that has seen great authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and was also the place where hippies gathered in the 70s to talk about making the world a better place.
More than finding great American and English books in this bookshop, you will surely feel like you are entering in an actual book or even in a movie. It’s true it can be quite crowded on weekends but if you go during the week, you should be able to find a calm place to sit upstairs and read a few pages or even write your diary. What a great and inspiring scene to write a diary! You can also play the piano and admire a black cat that always seems to be watching over the books on the shelves.
A big plus of this bookshop is that you can sip a cup of tea or coffee at the same time you are enjoying your book.
The charming bookstore: The Abbey Bookshop, a hidden Canadian bookshop in Paris
Address: 29 Rue de la Parcheminerie, Paris 5.
Closest metro: RER B Luxembourg. It is near Shakespeare & Co.
Open from 10 am to 7pm from Monday to Saturday.
In this little and narrow Canadian bookshop, there’s a book everywhere you look from the stalls on the sidewalk to every corner. It’s as if every English book in the planet had been squeezed in this tiny bookstore. If you are fond of reading actual paper books, this is the place you want to go.
Its location used to be the heart of the Parisian book trade in the thirteenth century, and then in the late Middle Ages, parchment makers replaced them and gave their name to the street. It makes therefore a lot of sense that in 1989, Brian Spence chose this historic street for the Abbey Bookshop.
Come and get to know more about this incredible bookshop and choose a book from the very wide collection, as there are more than 35,000 titles in English ranging from scholarly to popular literature. Besides, you can also find second-hand books at very affordable prices.
The stylish bookstore: Galignani, known as the first English bookshop established on the continent
Address: 224 rue de Rivoli, Paris 1er.
Closest metro: Line 1, Tuileries. The bookshop is close to the Louvre.
Open from 10 am to 7pm from Monday to Saturday
How can we write an article on the best English bookshops in Paris without mentioning this one? It doesn’t only have a great and unique collection of titles on fashion, design, cooking or life philosophy; it’s also simply beautiful with its shiny dark woodwork, waxed bookcases, glass roof, and sumptuous old parquet. It’s definitely a high-end establishment and you can find almost any book you can think of that was edited in English.
Among the books you can find here, there are bilingual versions of English classics and French novels, which is great when you are looking forward to improving your French.
The Galignani bookshop was founded in the sixteenth century and was relocated under the arcades of rue de Rivoli since the 1930s, facing the Tuileries garden.
There are plenty of other English bookshops in Paris but these are our favourites among the most famous ones. You may also be interested in going to WH Smith (248 rue de Rivoli, close to Galignani), considered to be the most comprehensive English bookshop although the interior is quite impersonal.
How about going to Parisian British tea rooms after visiting bookshops ?
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